Near the causeway [Sunday early evening]

[pasunereveuse]

Well, this weekend had gone about as disastrously as it was possible for it to have gone. Celia's father had criticized everything from the school itself to her figure to the company she kept, and she was exhausted. Because, of course, not only had she had to endure her father's endless tirade about everything he found unacceptable here, but Celia

Comments

[vanityofmineart]

" -- and that castle. How you get any sleep with the dankness there, I'll never know," Hector was saying, drawing his coat around himself unnecessarily. "No wonder you're looking so...sickly. We'll have to fix that, too."

[pasunereveuse]

"Yes, Papa," Celia said quietly, because it was just easier to agree -- never mind that she felt healthier here than she had in years, never mind that she actually ate enough here, and she had freckles across the bridge of her nose from actually getting some sunlight.

Sure. She looked sickly. Anything to get him to leave, and let her pick up the pieces that he'd left in his wake.

[vanityofmineart]

"I have a performance in Milan next week," he continued. "That should be enough time to get you some new dresses -- something to perform in. You'll only be eating breakfast, from here on. We'll have them made a few inches tight for motivation."

[pasunereveuse]

He was speaking quickly and making assumptions, and Celia was falling into the old patterns of agreeing without thinking.

"Yes, P -- wait." But wait. Wait. "Something to perform in?"

[vanityofmineart]

He stopped, looking at her as though she'd grown a second head. "You didn't think you were staying here, did you?"

Hector had thought his daughter brighter than that.

[pasunereveuse]

"...why shouldn't I?" Celia's heart was racing -- she couldn't leave. Not now, not without saying goodbye, not...not like this. Again.

[vanityofmineart]

"Why should you?" Hector scoffed, staring at her. "I should leave you here to waste your talents, to end up pregnant and alone like your mother? Is that what you'd prefer? Because that's all you're going to get here, Celia. You're going to waste away and give up everything you've worked for because you've got stars in your eyes over some boy."

He reached out for her wrist, his voice softening. "He won't care if you leave, you saw how his father treated us. We'll send for your things tomorrow. We'll have so much more time to practice, to make you a cham -- "

[pasunereveuse]

"No!"

Celia was a little surprised at herself. She'd felt everything growing steadily more tense as he'd spoken, and when he'd mentioned her mother -- who he had no right to talk about like that -- something in her had quietly snapped. A dam that had been threatening to overflow for the better part of ten years finally burst, and Celia found herself staring up at her father defiantly, her wrist shaking in his grip.

[vanityofmineart]

Hector was actually stunned into silence for a long moment, slowly narrowing his eyes at his daughter. "No?" he repeated, his voice soft, incredulous. "You don't get to say no, Celia."

[pasunereveuse]

"I get to say whatever I want," she told him, wildly. "I get to have opinions here, and people listen to me, and I have friends and --"

Her voice broke a little, in its stridency, but she continued. "And for the first time in my life, I know what it feels like to be loved, and you're not taking that away from me. No."

She wriggled her wrist in his grasp, trying to jerk it away, and instead began to feel the all too familiar pressure that reminded her of how fragile she was.

But she was so tired of feeling fragile.

[vanityofmineart]

Hector yanked on her wrist, his hand steadily tightening around it. "You," he said, his voice as steady as hers wasn't, "are being ridiculous. And if you don't come now, Celia, there will be consequences that I assure you you won't enjoy."

[pasunereveuse]

Celia flailed against him, desperate to free herself, to get him away from her -- she'd never defied her father, she'd never dared to, but now that she had she couldn't stop.

"I," she rasped, angrily thrashing her wrist and shutting her eyes -- it was easier if she shut her eyes, if she just looked with her other senses and used what she knew she had, "am not coming with you!"

On the last word, she freed her wrist, shoving him away in the process. When Celia opened her eyes, her father had been pushed about half a dozen feet away, and the dirt at her feet was cratered between them. She breathed deeply through her nose, her hands shaking as she stared at him.

"I am not coming with you," she said, trying to regain control of her voice. "I am learning here. I'm growing stronger every day. I'll participate in your challenge, but only because I haven't figured out how to break the bond. But I will not come with you to be paraded around like some doll you've picked up, and I am tired of being a pawn between two cowards. Find something

[vanityofmineart]

Hector watched her calmly, his face completely impassive as he pulled his watch from his pocket. The glass was, of course, thoroughly shattered.

He watched Celia carefully, as he gently lifted the watch into the air and the glass flitted back into place -- a trick he'd taught her himself, many years ago. A helpful reminder of who had taught her to use manipulation in the first place. A symbol of what happened when they lost control.

"One year," he said, finally, quietly. "One year, and you had better have something to show for yourself." He nodded to the dirt, which was welling away from her in her anger, still. "You need practice."

[pasunereveuse]

Celia's gaze went straight to the watch as she tried to steady her breathing. Finally, she just nodded.

"A year."

[vanityofmineart]

"And you'd best have something to show for it. I won't let behavior like that go a second time," he said, quiet and still as a snake before he plucked the watch out of the air and turned to go. "Something other than a whelp. I've had quite enough of those."

And with that, he set off across the causeway, certain that he'd made the impression he wanted.

[pasunereveuse]

Celia took a long moment to herself, to steady her nerves, before flicking her fingers to replace the dirt that had moved.

Her skirt was muddy, her hair was coming out of its knot, and her heart was beating out of her chest.

But Celia had never felt freer, and she nearly skipped her way back to the dorms.